The Associated Students of University of Oregon’s special election for this winter term began on Feb. 12.

There are two ballot measures that students will be voting on: the first measure is concerning the removal of the Erb Memorial Union from the ASUO’s constitution, and the second is about the incidental-fee and referendum funding.

The first ballot measure: EMU Removal from ASUO constitution

The I-Fee, or incidental fee, is a $140 fee that students pay every term as a part of tuition. This money goes to creating ASUO’s budget and helps to fund University organizations such as student organizations, departments and contracted service providers such as Lyft and PeaceHealth Bikes.

In the past, the EMU was funded by the I-fee but, in the last few years, its budget transitioned to a separate fund. Currently, there is language in the ASUO constitution about the EMU, as well as three senate seats on the ASUO senate which are dedicated to the EMU.

The first ballot measure would include the removal of language in the constitution that addresses the EMU as well as repositioning the senators that have a position involving the EMU. This measure is important for the organization of the ASUO constitution as well as giving the current EMU senate members a position with more duties.

This measure has been proposed to remove outdated and unnecessary information about the EMU taking up space in the constitution because the ASUO is not involved with the EMU anymore. Along with that, the EMU senators do not have many projects and their positions have become obsolete. Therefore, if the measure passes, these EMU senate positions will be reappointed.

The second ballot measure: streamline all student I-Fee’s through ASUO’s annual budget process

The second ballot measure proposes to redirect I-fee funding to go through the usual budget process which includes going to a weekly senate meeting and proposing a change to that organization’s budget. Contracted service providers, which are organizations not directly associated with the university, such as Lyft or PeaceHealth Bikes, have the option to receive funding outside of the I-fee which takes away from ASUO’s budget that goes to finance on campus organizations.

These providers can create petitions for students to sign for these providers to be a part of the ballot and request direct funding from the I-fee in a way that is outside of the ASUO’s typical budget process.

Natalie Hawkins, ASUO’s contracts finance committee chair, contributed to writing the Referendum Funding measure – the second measure on the ballot.

Hawkins’ intentions with this proposal is to “address the inequitable system that referendum funding is.” “Referendum funding,” Hawkins said, is a tool that can only be used by outside service providers. When a company requests money from the school, it is taking money away from the existing budget.

 “It is important for students to vote ‘no’ on this measure because it takes away direct democracy,” Vice Chair of Oregon State Public Research Interest Research Group, Prissila Moreno said. Moreno and other OSPRIG representatives are urging students to vote “no” on ballot measure two because they believe that students should be able to vote on funding directly, rather than the student government having primary control over the budget.

ASUO Secretary of Copywriting, Siri Brakstad, highlighted the importance of this election and that students should vote. “This election happens because there are urgent matters that have to be resolved before the election in the spring.”.

This election runs from Feb. 12 at 9:00 a.m. to Feb. 14 at 9:00 a.m.

The election will be available online and students can expect to receive an email with a link to voting after Feb. 12.